Blog posts
: "2013 South to Mexico"

After running around doing errands most days we decided a day by the pool was in order. We learned to play Mexican Train Dominoes from Salty Dog - which was a ton of fun. Afterwards we took a taxi through a pretty skanky part of town to find a restaurant called La Fogata - which Trip Advisor said …

The one thing we really wanted to see in Acapulco was the famous cliff divers. A bit of research showed that the restaurant on the cliff - La Perla - was pretty run down and the food rumored to be pretty awful. So we decided to have dinner at a beach restaurant with Salty Dog and then head over to…

When we first bought the boat we went to a boat insurance broker in the Seattle area to obtain our policy. We've been continually frustrated by their service. They would only insure us one segment of the trip at a time. Every few months we have had to email them to get the navigation area extende…

We left Zihuatanejo yesterday afternoon headed for Acapulco. We are starting to adjust to these overnight ventures. Princess Melissa sort of likes going to bed and waking up somewhere else. Dave seems not to overly mind a single overnight at the helm. Melissa has even managed to convince herself…

We spent the better part of the day laying on the beach doing nothing more than ordering another Margarita. In the evening we were reminded of when we were at this hotel on our honeymoon and were jealous of the cruisers on their boats in the bay. But today we got to watch the sunset over Apsaras.…

We had kept in contact with Rory - the guy that gave us tennis lessons when we were last at this hotel for our 10th Anniversary a couple of years ago. So we decided to take a lesson this morning. The action shots highlight how amazing this Cannon Rebel T3i camera really is. In action mode, you ca…

We decided while we were in Zihuatanejo that for Valentine's Day we would spend a few days in the hotel where we honeymooned ten years ago. To our delight when we checked in we were informed that we had been upgraded to a suite.

The credit for $800 in Mexico roaming charges was finally issued by Verizon. Its a hollow victory at best. Melissa talked with 11 agents in a series of 8 phone calls for a total of about 6 hours out of her life for no particularly good reason other than Verizon incompetence. For anyone not utterl…

We left the Ixtapa marina this morning and came over to anchor in Zihuatanejo - right in front of the beach where our honeymoon hotel is. We plan to go there for a few days over the Valentines day weekend. As we were pulling out of Ixtapa a giant crocodile swam by to say goodbye. He was a good 6 …

Joan (from Salty Dog) and Melissa headed off on the bus for a grocery shopping trip at Mega. Mega is Mexico's version of a Fred Meyer or Walmart store. Its got everything from groceries to dishwashers. Considering themselves both experts at taking the Mexican buses around the various port towns, …

We headed off from Manzanillo Thursday planning a two night voyage to Ixtapa. Thursday night’s trip was amazingly smooth. So much so that Melissa spent the evening on deck – a first. She never likes to be in the cockpit in the dark when you can hear the waves crashing all around us. But it was l…

So we've been working our way up dingy landing wise. Today we knew we were going to get wet. We went to the beach in front of the Walmart where the surf was about three feet high. We floated for quite a while before Dave decided to go for it - timing it between the biggest breakers. We landed sa…

This morning Melissa went to the port captain's office to check out. This silly Mexican custom of checking in and out of each port is kind of a pain. However, after a few minutes of stamping and signing we were again underway. We headed for Manzanillo and pulled into the small anchorage in front …

We've been hanging out in Barra de Navidad since returning from Seattle. Other than the Superbowl we've not done anything. Zip. Laid by the pool. Went out to dinner. Been lazy. After all the craziness of our touring inland and the trip home to Seattle, we needed a few days to recover. But we …

Today was the day of the big game. There were parties all over town. Virtually every restaurant and bar here was advertising 2 for 1 drinks, cheap food, and a big screen TV. We elected to be lazy and watch the game from the bar in the hotel rather than go into town. We suspect we were the younge…

Now that we’ve returned with some boat parts – the boat projects begin. Dave replaced a bad bilge pump switch and the engine ignition switch. We also had a mechanic come and polish the fuel. Polishing the fuel is an interesting exercise. Down here in the heat, you can get biologicals that grow i…

So before we hit Seattle last week, we started ordering boat parts like crazy. Getting stuff in Mexico is problematic, so we were stocking up on spare parts and some new stuff that we “couldn’t live without” once we heard about it. The most interesting of which was a PureUV water filter that will …

While we are in Seattle, we have been busy running errands and taking care of various business that is hard if not impossible to do in Mexico. Believe it or not, one of the challenges in Mexico was finding Dave a pair of shorts he liked. You would think that would be no problem but alas since it i…